Northwest Division

Minnesota Timberwolves Power Rankings - 2011-12

Power Ranking
WEEKRECORDRANKCOMMENT
Week 1726-3922The injury-ravaged Wolves did have enough left to finally shake their April albatross. Of far greater concern: For all the Love-and-Rubio hoopla, Sota has no lotto pick coming this June and has seen very little from David Kahn's last two top-five picks: Wes Johnson (No. 4 in 2010) and Derrick Williams (No. 2 in 2011).
Week 1625-3625This certainly isn't important enough to rush the concussed Kevin Love back, but the Wolves have stumbled to 25 consecutive defeats in April dating to 2009. Which happens to be the NBA's longest such drought since the Clippers dropped 26 straight February games from 1998 to 2000.
Week 1525-3221K-Love is bidding to become the first player to average at least 26 and 13 since Shaq did it in his MVP season of 1999-2000, but that's about all that the injury-tortured Wolves have left to play for now. They're 4-12 without Rubio, which begs the question: How many of those 16 Rubio-free games have you watched?
Week 1425-2921I know you want to know where I have Love on my MVP ballot with 25 days to go before ballots are collected and all I can tell you is: Somewhere in the top five. He only averaged 30.7 ppg and 13.9 rpg in March for a battered team that's sadly 4-8 since Rubio went down and nearly out of the playoffs. Complicated!
Week 1324-2619No Rubio, no Pekovic and no sign of surrender from the Wolves yet. Last seen in the throes of an argument on the Wolves' bench, K-Love and J.J. Barea just became only the second pair of teammates to post 50 points and a triple-double, respectively, in a loss: Friday night's 149-140 OT classic at OKC.
Week 1222-2420It appears safe to conclude that the Wolves' visit to the lofty heights of No. 9 two Mondays ago is as high as they'll end up going without their floor general. They racked up mostly turnovers and narrow defeats in their first five games after losing Rubio for the season, then got shredded in Sac-Town to raise tensions.
Week 1121-2112For the most thorough ode to Ricky Rubio's fascinating rookie season and how much sadness his knee injury has spread throughout the NBA, I urge you to click to this staff survey of the situation that tries to make sense of what he's shown us so far and where the Wolves can go in the short term without him.
Week 1019-199Lost amid the justified hoopla surrounding K-Love's 42-point eruption in Portland and road wins over the Clips and Blazers to further legitimize their bid to sneak into the playoffs: Martell Webster's big bounce-back game at both ends against the highly touted Nicolas Batum after that infamous dunk.
Week 917-1711The Wolves reside close enough to the conference equator to ask themselves the question West residents hovering in the .500 range have been asking themselves for years: Why can't we transfer to the East? A better question: Will the Wolves actually make a deal to upgrade at the 2 and/or 3 to finish .500 (or better)?
Week 816-1611You can reasonably argue there's no All-Star snub bigger than the Future Stars game snub of Nikola Pekovic, who's only averaging 18.3 ppg and 10.5 rpg in February. You can also chalk up another win over a division leader for the Wolves, who just added Philly to the Spurs (twice) and Clips on their list of victims.
Week 713-1515Once back from suspension, K-Love became the first player since Shaq all the way back in 2000-01 to average at least 25 points and 12 boards through his first 25 games of the season. As for his little buddy Rubio: The Spaniard is on course to become the first rookie to lead the league in steals. Ever.
Week 612-1212You have to rewind to 2006-07, which happens to be KG's last season in 'Sota, for the last time the Wolves sported a .500 record this deep into the season. Doesn't hurt that these Wolves, though bracing for a K-Love suspension after his Scola run-in, lead the league in wins when trailing at halftime with eight.
Week 59-1115Am I prone to rush them into the top half of the rankings every chance I get because of my Rubio addiction? Guilty. But how can you quibble after they spoiled Dallas' ring night and moved to 2-0 for the season against the Spurs on Friday night? Also: Six of Sota's losses are by five points or less.
Week 47-918Fearless Prediction: Sota will relent between now and Wednesday's deadline and give Kevin Love that extra fifth season on a max contract extension. Fearless Prediction II: Ricky Rubio would narrowly win ROY honors over Kyrie Irving if the balloting closed today.
Week 34-818Messed it up when I tweeted about it, but Ricky Rubio is continuing the glorious tradition of a rookie's delicious passing helping us get over a long lockout and how it cut into the schedule. It was J-Will in 1999 and Slick Rick -- now a starter -- in 2012.
Week 23-515The longest and saddest seven seconds of the season so far can only be Minnesota's seven late ticks against Milwaukee, since that represents the only fourth-quarter time our beloved rookie of the year favorite Ricky Rubio has watched from the bench so far.
Week 11-317Kevin Love has made shedding pounds and swishing step-back 3s look as natural as his board work. Ricky Rubio plays entire fourth quarters and surely will start soon. A return to the Marriott downtown with two-story rooms is on the horizon.
Preseason17-6520K-Love, Rubio, Derrick Williams, Beasley, Adelman and, of course, David Kahn! The Wolves have already clinched Favorite Bad Team To Watch status with a lot of NBA League Pass customers ... and as a bonus they might not be so bad after all.
Training Camp16-160You can reasonably argue there's no All-Star snub bigger than the Future Stars game snub of Nikola Pekovic, who's only averaging 18.3 ppg and 10.5 rpg in February. You can also chalk up another win over a division leader for the Wolves, who just added Philly to the Spurs (twice) and Clips on their list of victims.

Minnesota Timberwolves